The late NEAL PATTERSON was a successful Kansas City entrepreneur who named Ewing Kauffman, a great local business entrepreneur and founder of the Kansas City Royals, among his personal influencers. Along with friend and business partner Cliff Illig, Patterson was a principal investor in OnGoal LLC, the group that purchased the team from Hunt Sports Group in 2006.
At the time of his passing in July 2017, Mr. Patterson was chairman of the board, chief executive officer and co-founder of Cerner Corporation, the world’s largest stand-alone healthcare information technology company, with more than $5 billion in revenues and more than 25,000 associates worldwide, including more than 13,000 associates in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Mr. Patterson grew up on his family’s farm near Manchester, Oklahoma, was active in scouting, and worked his way through school. He earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and his master’s degree in business administration from Oklahoma State University in 1971 and 1972. In 1973, Mr. Patterson began his professional career as an information system consultant with Arthur Andersen & Co.
His entrepreneurial journey began in late 1979, when he and two Arthur Andersen colleagues, Cliff Illig and Paul Gorup, formed Cerner. As CEO, Mr. Patterson spearheaded more than three decades of Cerner’s growth, from its inception to its eventual position as the world’s leading healthcare information technology company. In 2010, Mr. Patterson was fourth on Forbes’ list of "America's Best-Performing Bosses," and in 2015, he was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of “America’s Longest-Serving CEOs,” with total shareholder returns that more than quadrupled the S&P 500 over the prior 20 years.
Active in healthcare leadership networks, Mr. Patterson was voted five times as one of Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare.” A 2014 GAO appointee to the Health Information Technology Policy Committee, he previously had been a member of the RAND Health Advisory Board and a trustee of the Midwest Research Institute. He was a proud co-founder and executive board member of the First Hand Foundation, Cerner’s nonprofit foundation for children with critical healthcare needs.
Outside of healthcare, Mr. Patterson was an active civic participant in entrepreneurial causes. He served as a lifetime director for the American Royal Association and was a founding member of the Entrepreneurs’ Exchange, a forum of seasoned entrepreneurs who support and encourage the next generation of Kansas City entrepreneurs through private meetings and public events.